The
Destroyer has had a somewhat complex history, so bear with me, 'cause this
gets complicated.

Originally, during the Golden Age, the Desteroyer was Keen Marlow. Marlow
was an American journalist who'd gone inside Nazi Germany to investigate
the horrors of that regime and report back to his States-side newspaper.
Unfortunately, Marlow was a better reporter than investigative journalist
(or, to put it less politely, spy), and he was caught snooping by the Germans
and thrown into a concentration camp. (Yes, they used that phrase, although
in mid-1941, when Mystic Comics was written, it didn't have the
horrific connotations it has today.)

In the camp Marlow meets fellow prisoner Professor Eric Schmitt, a German
scientist who'd refused to cooperate with the Nazis and was imprisoned
for his troubles. The dying Schmitt gives Marlow a formula he's created
himself: a version of the Super-Soldier Serum which would later empower
Captain
America (I). The Serum works on Marlow, giving him the same speed-strength-endurance-prime-of-human-potential
which Steve Rogers would later put to such good use as Cap. Schmitt, unfortunately,
dies just then.

The newly empowered Marlow breaks out of the camp, avenges Schmitt's
death, and goes on a rampage behind enemy lines, working as the costumed
Destroyer. He ranged across Europe and even Japan, although mostly he worked
in Germany. At times he was aided by the Allied agent Florence von Banger.
And when the war ended and the Golden Age drew to a close, the Destroyer
disappeared.

Then, during the 1970s, the Destroyer was brought back. Sorta. Kinda.
Roy Thomas, for reasons I've never seen explained, decided to replace Keen
Marlow with with someone else. The
Invaders heard tell of someone operating behind enemy lines, wearing
the Destroyer's costume and calling himself "the Mighty Destroyer." On
investigation, however, it was revealed that the man underneath the Destroyer's
mask was Brian Falsworth, the brother to the heroine and Invaders member
Spitfire.
Falsworth was moreover the son of Montgomery, Lord Falsworth, who had been
active during World War One as the Union
Jack (I).

Brian Falsworth had gone through the same experiences as Keen Marlow,
having gone into Germany to investigate the horrors of the Nazi's rule
and been imprisoned next to Professor Eric Schmitt. Schmitt had given Falsworth
a version of the Super-Soldier Serum, this time chronologically after Captain
America (I) got his Serum dose. Falsworth, like Keen Marlow, escaped from
the camp and waged a guerrilla war on the Germans as the costumed Mighty
Destroyer. (When questioned about "Keen Marlow," Falsworth dismissed the
name as fictitious, a move I thought and think was tacky on Roy Thomas'
part.)

Falsworth eventually put aside the costume of the Destroyer and became
Union
Jack (II). Falsworth's close friend Roger Aubrey, who had been
the Dyna-Mite,
put on the Destroyer's costume and began calling himself the Mighty Destroyer.
(So, in a sense, Roger Aubrey is Destroyer (III).) For the rest of the
war Aubrey served as the Destroyer, fighting evil and, in January 1945,
the Iron
Cross alongside the Blazing
Skull.

Still later, in the pages of Thunderbolts and the two Citizen
V miniseries, still more of Aubrey's past is revealed. Aubrey and Brian
Falsworth had been lovers. Aubrey, after the war, was a founding member
of the Penance Council, the leaders of the V-Battalion,
and had served on the Council since the war ended. At some point between
WW2 and the present Aubrey had traveled back to the "Stone Age," which
he found to be an "unpleasant place." After the events of the second Citizen
V miniseries Aubrey retired from the V-Battalion.

Note: In the History of Marvels comic Keen Marlow's name
was invoked, as the fictitious identity used by the "real" Destroyer during
the war. So at least that much of the one, true Destroyer still exists
in the MU.